Guide
Data Management Plan (DMP)
A data management plan (DMP) is a formal document describing how research data will be collected, organised, stored, shared and preserved throughout a project and after it ends — now required by NIH, NSF, Wellcome Trust, Horizon Europe and the Australian Research Council.
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What a DMP must cover
A data management plan addresses the full research data lifecycle. Funders typically expect sections on: the types and formats of data that will be collected or generated; the metadata standards that will be applied to ensure discoverability; storage, backup and security arrangements during the project; plans for sharing data and the conditions under which access will be granted; long-term preservation in an appropriate repository; and compliance with funder, institutional and regulatory requirements. NIH's 2023 Data Management and Sharing Policy requires plans to specify data repositories, timelines for sharing and any justifiable limitations on sharing.
Funder requirements
The 2023 NIH DMS Policy made data management and sharing plans compulsory for all NIH-funded research that generates scientific data, requiring submission at the time of application and compliance verified by programme officers. NSF has long required data management plans as a two-page supplementary document. In the UK, UKRI agencies and the Wellcome Trust require DMPs, and Wellcome mandates open access to data. Horizon Europe requires a DMP as a deliverable, updated at intervals during the project. The Australian Research Council requires DMPs for project grants. Journal data-availability policies increasingly reference an associated DMP.
Tools and machine-actionable DMPs
DMPTool (US) and DMP Online (UK/Europe) are free web platforms that provide templates tailored to specific funder requirements and guidance for each section. RDMO (Research Data Management Organiser) is widely used in German-speaking countries. A growing development is the machine-actionable DMP (maDMP), expressed in a structured format (RDA DMP Common Standard, JSON-LD) so that systems can read, validate and act on DMP contents rather than treating them as PDF documents. The maDMP standard lets repositories, funding systems and data catalogues consume plan information automatically, improving compliance verification and connecting the plan to the live project.
Key facts
At a glance
- Definition: a formal document describing how research data will be managed and shared
- NIH mandate: 2023 DMS Policy requires a DMP for all NIH-funded research generating scientific data
- NSF: requires a two-page data management plan as a supplementary document
- Wellcome Trust: requires an open-access data plan; Horizon Europe requires a DMP as a deliverable
- Key tools: DMPTool (US), DMP Online (UK/Europe), RDMO (DACH countries)
- Machine-actionable DMPs: RDA DMP Common Standard enables system-to-system DMP interoperability
- Connected to: FAIR data principles, data repositories, metadata standards and Open Science frameworks
Common misconceptions
What people often get wrong
Often heard: A data management plan is only needed for large or complex projects.
Actually: Most funders require a DMP regardless of project scale. Any research that generates, collects or processes data is expected to plan how it will be stored, shared and preserved, whether a small interview study or a large genomic dataset.
Often heard: A DMP is a one-time document submitted with a grant proposal and then forgotten.
Actually: A DMP is a living document that should be updated as the project evolves. Horizon Europe explicitly requires updated versions at set intervals; funders increasingly review DMP compliance throughout the award period.
Often heard: Writing a data management plan means you must share all data openly.
Actually: Data sharing should be "as open as possible, as closed as necessary". A DMP documents justifiable restrictions — for example, participant confidentiality, commercial sensitivity or legal constraints — alongside the maximum sharing that is possible within those limits.
Common questions
FAQ
What is the difference between a data management plan and a data sharing plan?+
A DMP covers the full lifecycle of data — collection, organisation, storage, security and preservation — whereas a data sharing plan focuses specifically on how and when data will be made available to others. The NIH DMS Policy uses "data management and sharing plan" to make clear both elements are required.
Which repositories should I name in my DMP?+
Funders generally prefer established, trustworthy repositories: NIH recommends domain-specific repositories (such as NCBI databases for genomics) or generalist repositories (Zenodo, Dryad, Figshare). The re3data.org registry lists over 2,000 research data repositories to help researchers choose one appropriate to their discipline.
Going deeper
